The mayor of Mount Vernon tipped off a political pal that he was about to be busted for allegedly molesting a 12-year-old girl — two weeks before the creep was locked up, a bombshell lawsuit claims.
Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard allegedly summoned disgraced basketball coach Dwayne Murray to Mount Vernon City Hall in late April to warn her “close associate” of the pending bust, one of several hair-raising claims laid out in the suit filed Monday by community activist Gabriel Thompson.
“I just see lawlessness,” Thompson told The Post. “She needs to resign. Are you kidding me? The mayor of a city reached out to someone … who she assumed was a pedophile, to warn them.
“That person cannot be given a position of public trust,” he said. “I have no political interest. I’m not running for office. This isn’t about that at all, period, full stop. This is just someone who’s disgusted, disgusted with people in power using their office like this.”
According to the suit, Patterson-Howard received a text from another supporter on April 28.
“I’m hearing troubling reports that a middle-aged close associate of yours is accused of having inappropriate physical relations with a 14-year-old eight grader and of stealing from a nonprofit organization,” the text message said, according to the lawsuit.
“It is also being reported that you were aware of both allegations. Is this true?”
Although the target of the probe wasn’t named in the text, Patterson-Howard then called Murray to City Hall and showed him the text, allegedly aware it referred to him, the lawsuit claims.
After reports of text message went public — but before his arrest — Murray posted a video online.
“I want to make it crystal clear, I’ve never, ever done anything inappropriate with the players on my team, or any team for that matter,” he said in the clip.
“This whole thing is a smear campaign to silence me, pure and simple,” he added.
However, Murray also admitted that on April 28 he “had a chat with mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard,” and that “she told me she got a text message.”
On May 15, Westchester County District Attorney Susan Cacace held a press conference to announce that Murray, 62, was charged with sexual abuse of a minor, allegedly molesting the girl for more than a year.
Murray, who is being held at the Westchester County Jail without bail pending a return to court next month, was executive director of the Mount Vernon Junior Knights youth basketball program, part of the Westchester County city’s storied hoops legacy.
He had worked on Patterson-Howard’s campaigns and previously lived with Mount Vernon School Board member Erica Peterson — one of several candidates the mayor campaigned for.
Thompson’s lawsuit also cited Peterson, claiming that Patterson-Howard misused her office — and taxpayer dollars — by actively campaigning for Peterson and two other school candidates on city time.
The suit further accuses the mayor of illegally misusing tax dollars by maintaining a police “security detail” that goes with her everywhere, including to a mayor’s conference in Washington DC in January.
A spokesperson for Patterson-Howard did not respond to a request for comment from The Post.
But in a statement to lohud.com, the Democratic mayor called Thompson’s claims “politically motivated and frivolous.
“It seeks to drag Mount Vernon back to an era of chaos and confusion we’ve worked so hard to move beyond,” the statement said. “When I took office I promised to lead with integrity and not to do anything that would embarrass our community and I have kept that promise.”
The statement did not address the claims about Murray being tipped off about his pending arrest.
Mount Vernon’s predominantly Democratic voter rolls make the Southern Westchester city a potent political presence in the suburban county. But the small city has also been plagued by political scandals in the past, with the two prior mayors both pleading guilty to criminal charges while in office.
Former Mayor Richard Thomas pleaded guilty to misuse of campaign funds in 2019, and his predecessor, longtime Mayor Ernie Davis pleaded to federal tax evasion charges in in 2014.
Meanwhile, Thompson said he has no political leanings — and is just trying to be a responsible citizen.
“There’s an avenue where we have standing as a taxpayer, and if the district attorney can’t take a stand because it hurts her voting base or constituency or something, and if my electives won’t take a stand — they won’t say anything, none of our council people came out and said anything.
“None of them called on her to resign,” he said. “I called on her to resign.”
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